A fragmented aperture antenna may include a patchwork of discrete conducting and substantially dielectric units distributed over a specified aperture. The conducting material may include any material that comprises a higher conductivity than the substantially dielectric unit materials. These units of dielectric and conducting materials may be referred to as bricks or tiles. In general, tiles may be units that comprise a portion of an antenna system.
A phased array antenna can be electrically steerable in elevation and azimuth, and may have electronic polarization control. It typically has few or no moving parts, and a low profile. These attributes make a phased array antenna ideal for mounting to a moving vehicle, such as an airplane. However, the phased array comprises several electrical circuits that consume a substantial amount of power during operation. This in turn results in a high level of elevated temperature and generation of heat. In general, the heat must be dissipated in order for the electrical circuits to operate efficiently and within the design parameters of the antenna.
The phased array aperture antenna systems comprising one or more antenna tiles typically utilize plug radiators to function as antennas. These plug radiators sit on top of, and are generally coupled to, integrated circuits. Additionally, due to space limitations, various elements are located off the integrated circuit chip. The plug radiators and extra couplings often times introduce losses, larger footprint, more hardware to malfunction, and greater cost. Furthermore, the historical phased array aperture antenna systems are not able to dynamically electronically control polarization and/or vector of the unit antenna tile. Additionally, cooling, if performed at all, is typically performed with space and power consuming fans with forced air or liquid cooling units. Thus, a need exists for an antenna tile system that overcomes these and other deficiencies.